How Traveling to 27 Countries in 12 Months Changed This Family
BY LEROY ADAMS
Heather Greenwood Davis is a Contributing Writer and on-air storyteller for National Geographic. Her work appears regularly in a host of national and international publications from O magazine to NPR. She appears on television stations across North America and is the resident travel expert on The Social - a national daily lifestyle show. Heather has shared her travel insights as a speaker at trade gatherings hosted by TravMedia, US Travel Association, Destination Canada, SATW, and others. Heather is also the voice behind GlobetrottingMama.com – an international, family travel blog that features the adventures she takes with (and without) her husband Ish and their two sons, Ethan and Cameron.
“Before we went on this trip, we said to each other, “Look, let’s be real about this. There are real risks here…either we are going to come back and be married forever, or we’re coming back and divorcing.”
Q&A with Heather Greenwood Davis
Q: TAKE US TO THE BEGINNING, HOW DID THIS TRAVEL JOURNEY BEGIN FOR YOUR FAMILY?
A: It started in 2007. I was a lawyer, and I left that job. My husband worked for the municipal government and had the opportunity to do a four over five - a prepaid sabbatical. For four years, he took home a little less pay and worked a little more, then in the fifth year, he got his regular salary, but he didn’t have to come to work. So, the combination of me leaving my position to become a freelance travel writer, and him having this designated year -- we thought, you know, we’ve always wanted to go on a long travel trip with our kids while they were young, let’s see if we can make it happen. So, for the next four years, we lived off that leaner salary. And in 2011, we packed up everybody and set out on this round-world trip. A year later, we had hit 29 countries on six continents.
Q: How did the national geographic TAKE notice?
A: Along the way, I was tweeting. I was [also] doing a little bit of TV work. I was doing a bit of writing, but it was Twitter. The tweeting caught people’s attention, and someone saw it and passed it onto the folks at [the] National Geographic. And in 2012 we got the call saying they wanted us to be the 2012 travelers of the year... the whole family. It was a real honor.
Q: YOUR BOYS, WHO WERE ONLY 6 AND 8 AT THE TIME, HOW DID THEY RESPOND TO THE NEWS OF THIS YEAR-LONG TRIP?
A: We didn’t tell them right away. They were six and eight, right. So, we didn’t tell the boys we were leaving until a couple of months before because, I don’t know if you know, [but] with young kids it would have been a year of [mom] Tomorrow? Tomorrow? Tomorrow?. When we did tell them, I said, “So guys, this year we’re going on this trip. We’re going to go around the world. And, they were not jazzed. I asked them, “Do you understand what I’m saying? They said, “I don’t know, my friend is going to Disney World this year.” I’m like, “Are you kidding me?”
Q: Did you have second thoughts after their response?
A: I missed my family. I missed the four of us. Over the years, leading up to this, I felt like we were being pulled apart. This was about how do I make sure this unit of four that is so important to me stays together and isn’t pulled apart by competing interests of people outside who don’t mean as much to me as these three do.
And so I felt strongly that if we spent a considerable amount of time together, we could build a bond that would withstand the pressure [of competing interest from outside our unit].
Q: what impact did this trip have on your marriage?
A: Before we went on this trip, we said to each other, “Look, let’s be real about this. There are real risks here. This is a long period of time. And either we are going to come back and be married forever, or we’re coming back and divorcing.”
Spoiler alert: We’re still together. But there was a moment. In Ecuador, very early in the trip, we got on each other’s nerves about something.
And he said, “I need a break. And you’re not leaving me with both kids.” He took one kid and went left and I took the other kid and I went right. We didn’t realize that we were in a square [courtyard]. And we both stormed off and ended up meeting [in the middle] and we had to laugh.
There’s nowhere to go. Like there’s nowhere to go, what are we going to do? You’ve got to figure it out. And so it changed the dynamic of how we had arguments or how we disagreed about things. And we didn’t really fight or have a big blowout for the remainder of that trip. There was no reward. So it taught us how to relate to each other.
Q: Did you notice any changes in your boys due to this experience?
A: There were definitely moments of change. Some of them were gradual. But also, the nature of the trip means that things happen in ways they might not otherwise. My youngest when we started this trip would hide behind my legs when people came by. He was super shy. Not anymore.
He has his own business where he makes shirts. He’s on television. He’s in the newspaper. He gives interviews. He is not shy [anymore]. My oldest son was very picky [with food]. I remember that was one of our concerns when we started this trip.
I had to make a deal with him where I was like, “If we are in a place where I can get the macaroni and cheese Kraft dinner or jam on bread, it’s all yours, buddy. But if we, at some point, are going to be somewhere that doesn’t have that, you still have to eat. So can you make a promise to me if I promise that to you?”
At some point, that kid became the most adventurous eater in the family. One day we were in the Galapagos, there was no Kraft dinner. The menu was fish, and he was like, “You know what, I’m going to try lobster today.” And I said to my husband, “Do not order anything because we have to pay for that lobster, and he’s not going to eat any of it. That kid ate the whole lobster, and my husband went hungry. You sacrifice for your children.
Q: I’ve heard you say many times that even though your family couldn’t afford to take this trip, you also couldn’t afford not to. What do you mean by that?
A: When I say we couldn’t afford not to I’m like, what is the thing that you value? You know, what is it that you want for your family? What is it that you want for yourself? What is it that you want for your kids?
And if what you want for them is a particular way of seeing the world and to understand that where they’re growing up - whether it’s a wealthy neighborhood or not, or a multicultural neighborhood or not - is not the entire world. If you want to broaden their horizons, the only way I believe to do that is to take them out of that space and expand what they believe they’re entitled to - which is, you know, the possibility to explore the planet.
Q: what advice do you have for people, especially black people, who may be hesitant to travel?
A: I don’t want this to sound Pollyanna. I recognize there are reasons - listen the power of the passport and where you live and where you were born, all of those things affect how far you can go. But, if you’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to go [travel] and you’re not taking that opportunity, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice.
I remember when I was in Vietnam and one of the hostesses [at a restaurant] said, “I wish I could come to Canada. I wish I could go to the U.S. and see it.” I was like, “Oh, you should, you should come.”
And she said, no, like the red tape to get a visa... it’s huge. And we take for granted that we can just get a passport. It’s your ticker. It really is opening up doors for you. Like, get your passport, especially people of color.
Go see [the world]. Maybe it’s better [in another country, maybe it’s not, but go see. You can always come back. This is your country of birth. You can always come back.
Heather’s interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Click here to check out the extended interview on The Buddy Pass podcast!